Saluki downTime October 30, 2023

Saluki downTime October 30, 2023

Intentness

Set a realistic goal. Concentrate on its achievement by resisting all temptations and being determined and persistent

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Intentness is the ability to resist temptations and to avoid rabbit trails of distractions.

What do you want to accomplish?

Who do you want to be?

How good do you want to be?

How successful do you want to be?

Intentness is the quality that won't allow us to quit, even when our goal is going to take awhile to accomplish.

Who has a story of a goal that took forever to accomplish or you are in the middle of the long journey waiting to get there?

We as humans want immediate gratification. Fast Food - Cell phones - Social Media.

What else do we have that gives us immediate gratification?

People are impatient - Intentness is patience with action.

Setting Goals or Goals versus dreams.

When goals are set unrealistically high, it soon becomes apparent that they are not going to be met.

Without being intentional we sometimes want to change the goal because it's too hard or is taking too long. Instead, think about changing the method, not the goal.

Anyone have an example of being stuck in traffic for a long time? How many of you just said forget it and went back home? Or who found a different route to get to where you were going?

Math Process - They start with small problems. They start with easy problems. Small steps to get to the large and difficult problems. Math has a base. This is an example of being intent. You can't start with Chemistry or Calculus. You have to start with addition and subtraction.

This is the same in life. Small steps in life of being intent will lead to larger things in life.

We must not dread adversity. Life takes time. Be intent with how you handle adversity.

Extending our capabilities to their limits requires us to realistically reevaluate our potential.

What event in your life has made you stronger?

She though, "If I can just touch his robe, I will be healed" 

Matthew 9:21

Life will throw us curve balls - you have to trust yourself. Sometimes the pitcher is bad and the curveball will hit you. Sometimes you miss it completely but Sometimes you hang in there - stay back and make solid contact.

Levitical law made life for a woman very difficult. Especially one that was on her period. During this time she was considered unclean. Anyone who touched her would be unclean and anything she touched was also considered unclean.

This woman's discharge had continued for 12 years. If she was married she would have had to get a divorce. She has no friends and even worse she had no human contact for those 12 years.

She tried everything she could to "fix" this problem. Nothing worked. No doctor, no nothing. However she never gave up. She heard Jesus was coming to town and was intent with her actions.

She had a few obstacles in her way. Remember she was unclean. She couldn't be in public. She was weak and anemic. There was no way she had enough strength to force her way through the crowd. But she was intent.

She crawled. She got down on all fours and crawled.

She thought. If I can just touch the edge of his robe, I will be healed.

She probably wanted to touch his ankle or even grab his robe but missed. She was only able to touch his robe.

Jesus said "who touched me?"

Peter said someone just bumped you. It's ok Jesus just keep moving. Like a bodyguard. Jesus said no, someone touched me on purpose.

47 Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. 48 Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” 

Luke 8:47-48

She had determination, persistence, tenacity, and resolve all rolled up into one word that applied to be faith. She was intent.

How do you deal with people and events that keep you from accomplishing your main purpose?

Do you need to change the way you react to distractions?

Describe a time when you successfully pushed through distractions and difficulties to reach your goal.

I commit myself to be focused on the main objective of teaching excellence and to avoid anything less important that would keep me from reaching my greatest potential.